


Sulis, Darn It!

by RunMarmiteRun



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: F/M, Gen, Greek Mythos, Ulysses 31
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-02 14:16:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19443118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunMarmiteRun/pseuds/RunMarmiteRun
Summary: Exhaustion and education make it even less likely that Five will ever make sense of emotions other than a runner’s high.  36 may be the only one who makes sense by forfeiting the notion that reality is solid in an apocalypse.





	1. Chapter 1

There were spots starting in front of my eyes and my ankle was throbbing. I could feel the sweat pouring into my eyes but I was in the open countryside. There was blood all over me. My wrists were throbbing as I struggled to secure the vials by awkwardly tying my shirt into a sort of bag...my backpack was history. Making an awkward knapsack that destroyed my favorite shirt, I secured it to my sports bra. Paula has risked her life, Maxine and Paula are giving up their happiness, I have to get these vials back.

Sam is distracted. Why on earth is he darning a jumper? I had started to teach him to sew a little mostly because he was so helpless and had randomly mentioned wanting to make things for people but having no handicrafts skills. All the men in my family had learned sewing to put patches on their uniforms and some of them did leatherwork so I didn’t see a problem teaching him. One of my cousins and my grandfather had even gotten reasonably good at cross stitching. But now? The spots were in front of my eyes. I was so thirsty.

“One of Van Ark’s heavies is after you...well, it used to be...” It was good to hear Sam’s voice again. He was directing me around and Janine was there with him, so was Maxine, they must have been really worried to all three be crammed in the shack. Janine was probably practically stepping on top of Sam. But she wasn’t shouting at him like usual. Perhaps because he was darning? Maybe that meant she was afraid of needles?

I kept running. One foot in front of the other. My ankle shooting pain each time I set it down. I couldn’t tell if the blood taste in my mouth was mine or... best not to think about that. Run. An odyssey. But I’m Irish not Greek - I don’t even like ouzo. Or grappa. Grappa smells awful. I would rather drink Guinness. My shirt...oh my shirt is ruined. Why is Sam darning a jumper? It’s summer.


	2. Chapter 2

“I think you just made it mad.” I was running again, my running felt like limping but I had to move, my other leg was naturally trying to take more weight to get the pain to stop radiating up toward my my knee and now my other ankle. I fell forward just as someone told me to duck. I threw my hands forward automatically to stop myself and felt a crack, I felt a rock scrape along my side too — the vials, oh no, I twisted to avoid falling on them. My body is not important right now.

“Where did he come from?” Sam was talking away. “He seems friendly.” I saw loping alongside me a strange little man, wizened and slightly wrinkled but grinning. He was inviting me to come up to his house. I was so thirsty and everything hurt. It would be so nice to stop just for a bit. Surely just a little while. Sam and Maxine were telling me not to stop. The little man was talking to me to. Everything was sort of a haze. The headache was starting, I knew I was beginning to dehydrate.

“Always said we could cook anything...” Mr. Antiphates was telling me that he’d owned a restaurant before zed day. Why did that name sound familiar? Did I know him perhaps? Sounded like something out of the Iliad or Jason and the Argonauts...

“May be a little deaf...” His home was on a hill, where there was room for weary travellers to eat and drink...I would drink anything right now, even ouzo. Water would be best though. Sam was telling me to head towards the stadium, he was telling me to mumble something. Why was he telling me to mumble something? Had Maxine told him? I tried to say his name but it was so hard to say an S with my tongue having been injured. Antiphates was running beside me saying to speak up, he told me I had a juicy rump. I tried to ask Sam what he thought of my rump. I wouldn’t dare ask him but I knew he’d never understand me. I was feeling a little strange. There was a big gash on my left leg I hadn’t noticed and my wrists hadn’t really stopped bleeding. One foot in front of the other. Left. Right. Left. Right. A blast of sound from the stadium. I looked up for a moment. Janine was shouting something about having burst Mr. Antiphates eardrums. Sam was telling me to keep running. Mr. Antiphates - Where was he? I looked around. Just keep running.


	3. Chapter 3

Janine was telling me to circle round the gold cow. I had just come round this cow not too long ago. I flashed my girl guide salute. Jordan would tell me to pick up my feet if she could see me now. No slouching, we have a job to do. Straighten that bedroll. I reached round to be sure my shirt was still secured, these vials had to make it back.

I knew where I was. So thirsty. I’d stopped sweating at least. One foot in front of the other. Keep going. I could hear the girls in my mind as we ran. The last time I’d been here we’d been trying to find Posey’s sister. Ix-nay on the ooms-day. Sam was talking about a pig in the Thresher’s. I’d always liked Circe. Of course I’d always been a bit off. Artsy and strange and stuff. Partly why rooming with 36 suited me. Except that I was only rooming with 36 because X was gone. Why hadn’t I brought my sword? X had carefully salvaged that sword, a Russian military sabre. I carried it now. I hadn’t brought it on the run because I was just supposed to be checking the church for Sam’s conspiracy theory. Sam was talking about a cartoon. Oh that’s right, Ulysses 31. I had always watched She-Ra myself but I had a penchant for anything with unicorns and Swiftwind would have been a perfect companion. Less annoying than Battlecat because I liked Battlecat but not Cringer. He-Man tended to hide who he was but Adora just hid from the bad guys. At least that’s how I’d seen it. These spots in front of my eyes were really irritating. Why were they going to send Simon out after me? He would just try to flirt with me again or something. Send 36. She had said she was just going to spend today working on learning to card wool and spin. Sam was still darning. Why was Sam darning?

No, a group of zoms. It was ok, Sam could tell me which way. Just follow the voice. I couldn’t think and I felt strangely lightheaded. At least I wasn’t sweating anymore and there seemed to be less blood running down my wrists and leg. So much less annoying. Stains on my shirt though. Worse than curry they’d never come out. This shirt was ruined. Why was it wrapped up like this? Oh, that’s right, the vials. 

Lem? Lem? What a guy! I gave him a salute. One foot in front of the other. Left. Right. Left. Right. 

Simon! You eedjit! All those shooting lessons from literally everyone and you still can’t shoot? Sam, you should have sent 36. She could have brought her swords or at least not tried to shoot me.


	4. Chapter 4

“...not the same without you.” Sam was coming toward me. Why was he holding that orange jumper? He usually wore the orange jumper, he said it got cold in the shack. 36 was running out to me too, untangling the vials and taking them..  
I mumbled. “Sam, she’s calling for you I think...” Maxine was frantically trying to check me over as she moved me towards the infirmary. I was so thirsty and my mouth wouldn’t make the right shapes anyway.

“Solace? I think that’s what she’s saying maybe? Five, you’re safe, don’t worry, Maxine is going to get you righted. I’ll bring you a cup of tea even, I’ll get 36 to bring some of her stash, I think she’s got some of that strong stuff you like put back and I’ll bring you some marmite, hush now...” Sam was trying to help me limp along and had the stupid jumper crumpled against me.

Maybe he just couldn’t understand me. I knew I was hard to understand when I tried to talk. But I couldn’t write. “Sulis- I’m not like Athena I’m Celtic you great lump and I want to kiss you without punching you first.”

“36, come here - help me get her on the stretcher. She’s trying to tell me something.” Sam was trying to get me to lie down. Maxine was frantically trying to wipe me down and check for bites I supposed but I was just feeling tired but strange. I needed Sam to understand me. Maybe 36 could help. I couldn’t make my consonants well anymore since the injury but maybe if I spoke slowly the two of them could sort it out.

“Sam, you don’t need to darn the jumper. I am not Sulis. You’re...not the fates or Dàhēitiān or anything. I’m sorry I punched you but I’m scared of heights and you made me jump not funny like when we played that joke on Janine...” I was remembering how he’d told me about his grandfather and the bao, then we’d had such a laugh jumping after telling Janine about the zoms, hopping down the road. And he hadn’t known I was scared of heights when he’d had me run across them saying that to Nadia...I wanted to tell him so much. He didn’t even know I’d been starting work on my thesis in archeology when I’d had all that happen at the party, he didn’t know I had been studying about antiquities and the effects of European expansion into the Sino-Russian border zones which was why I always played a barbarian in Dungeons and Darkness... Sam wasn’t understanding me. 36 was just trying to get me to stay down on the makeshift stretcher. I signaled frantically to my roommate. She leaned in. “Look, calm down. Are you bitten?” I shook my head no. “Freya’s braid and Odin’s eye, woman, you’ve lost blood and you’re dehydrated. Calm down. You’re trying to say something but you know we have a hard time understanding you. Talk slowly.” I knew they couldn’t understand me. I did my best to make the sounds. My tongue was clumsy and it sounded to my ears more like “tham” but I said slowly “Sam.” He leaned in. I reached up and wrapped my arms around him. He stumbled and fell as the stretcher was lying on the ground. As he awkwardly lay there, I kissed him without punching him first. I think he understood me that time. And this time I definitely felt him kiss me back.


End file.
